Jay Ponteri directs the undergraduate creative writing program at Marylhurst University and Show: Tell, The Workshop for Teen Writers & Artists. He is the founding editor of both the online literary magazine M Review and HABIT Books. His work has appeared in Tin House, Puerto Del Sol, and Seattle Review, and “Listen to This” was chosen as a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2010. Jay lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and son.
Biography
Titles
Wedlocked
- nonfiction / memoir
Essayistic, narrative, and meditative by turns, Ponteri’s is a beautiful and truly courageous voice.
- Jenny Boully
- Author of The Book of Beginnings and Endings
Married writer Jay Ponteri finds himself infatuated with a woman other than his wife and writes a manuscript to explore his feelings. Discovery of this manuscript understandably strains his marriage. Wedlocked offers readers an intimate, idiosyncratic view of a human institution that can so...Forward
Readings and events
There are currently no events featuring Mr. Ponteri on the calendar.
News
Jay Ponteri Joins Cheryl Strayed and Steve Almond on Dear Sugar
A Very Sugar Valentine’s Day: Forbidden Crushes
Valentine’s Day is seen as a celebration of love. But most of the letters the Sugars receive about love are far less celebratory. For this...Forward
Jay Ponteri Essay for Oregon Humanities Selected as a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2015
Huge congratulations to Hawthorne Books author Jay Ponteri, whose Oregon Humanities essay, “In Defense of Navel-Gazing,” was selected as a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2015.
To read an...Forward
Jay Ponteri on Charles D’Ambrosio’s “Loitering: New & Collected Essays”
In Loitering: New & Collected Essays (forthcoming from Tin House Books), Charles D’Ambrosio crowds around relationships, people, and cultures that are marginalized or in ruins or that have totally...Forward
Ander Monson on Jay Ponteri’s memoir, Wedlocked, which he chose as the winner of the Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction
An essay is an artificial intelligence, a continual reenactment of a particular strand of thinking. Whenever the reader encounters one, it runs like software in her head as she reads, producing an...Forward
“Author has marriage issues all locked up,” by Stephen Alexander for the Portland Tribune
Wedlocked shows how couple wrestles with difficult times
The ingredients for a stellar memoir are simple: lay your soul bare for all to judge you.
Actually doing that, though, takes exploring your...Forward
On the Hawthorne Books Blog
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Elsewhere